In response to a FOIA request seeking a case report and
related records for an incident, a municipal police department withheld responsive records from disclosure citing Section 7(1)(d)(i) of FOIA,
which exempts records that would interfere with a pending or actually and
reasonably contemplated law enforcement proceedings conducted by any law
enforcement. The requestor then appealed the denial to the Public Access Counselor of the Attorney General’s office (PAC).
In PAC Op. 24-011, the PAC issued a binding opinion concluding that the
police department violated FOIA by entirely withholding its responsive records.
Specifically, the PAC noted that the case report indicated the police department had administratively closed
its investigation into this matter. The PAC rejected the police department’s argument that this exemption was still valid because the department was assisting other law enforcement agencies with
similar incidents involving a suspect matching the same description, motive, and vehicle, finding that the department did not provide a
detailed factual basis explaining with specificity how disclosing its
responsive records would interfere with those ongoing joint law enforcement
investigative efforts.
The PAC ordered the department to release the records, but stated the department could redact names,
identifying information, and details that might disclose the identity of an at-large suspect pursuant to the personal privacy and private information exemptions.
Post Authored by Eugene Bolotnikov, Ancel Glink